Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Kakkiri pachadi is something like cucumber Raita. But Raita is grated or chopped vegetables of any kind, mixed with yogurt and generally no coconut is involved. Here in kakkiri pachadi, uncooked, green cucumber is mixed with coconut which is ground along with few other ingredients to impart fresh flavours. It is then mixed with yogurt for a refreshing tangy taste. And then tempered in coconut oil. Here mustard is used in two form, one while grinding and other is used to splutter while tempering. Pachadi can also be made with other vegetables like beetroot, mango, pineapple, carrot, Okra, Indian cucumbers etc. Most of these vegetables are cooked prior to adding the ground mixture though and are integral part of Kerala Onam Sadya menu. This is my mother’s version of kakkiri pachadi and she normally serves it along with some fish curry, fried fish and pappadum.

3. Crush mustard using pestle and mortar and add to the coconut mix. You can also add mustard directly to the smooth coconut paste and just whizz them just to crush. But make sure that you don’t over-do mustard as the flavour is very strong and overpowering. So to be on the safe side, crush it on pestle and mortar.

5. In a separate small pan, heat oil. When the oil is hot enough, crackle mustard seeds and add chilly and curry leaves. Sauté for few second until it leaves aroma. Add it to the prepared mixture and mix well. Serve with hot plain rice and curries.

Notes:

1. My mom uses round dried red chilly for tempering, I am not sure what it is called though. I have never come across that kind of chilly here , so I use long twisted Dried kashmiri chillies instead. I am sure any dried variety should work fine.

Shab now tht im def gonna try..im always bored with the usual mooru curry and i actually have no clue how to make pachadi kichadi with all the weird veggie..cucumber sounds like a great idea..love the 1st pic.u know what..there is a cupcake decorating class im attending next monday and since they goofed up my previous appt., they said i could bring along a friend absolutely free of charge. If u were anywhere nearby i would have def asked u to drop over and we cud have done some serious cake decorating :)